


A is A: Legs to Walk

by Flyboy254



Series: A Is A [22]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action, Gen, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-07-28 13:10:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16242302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flyboy254/pseuds/Flyboy254
Summary: The MVTF gains two new alchemists, and Alphonse Elric gains even more perspective on reality.





	1. Chapter 1

**Legs to Walk**

* * *

The work wasn’t easy, but Ed rose and smiled as he wiped the sweat from his brow. Re-shingling the roof wouldn’t be this hard with alchemy, but as he clapped his hands for probably the twelfth time since the fight in Central City he smiled sadly. Nothing happened, and as much as he wanted to get the work over with he was fine with the lack of reaction.

 

“Hey, Ed, you okay up there?”

 

Ed stood. “Sure am Al, c’mon up.”

 

Five seconds later the two Elric brothers stood surveying the Resembool countryside. Edward, finally at the height he was supposed to be, and Alphonse finally in the body he was born in. It was early summer, the sun beaming down brightly on the pair as great fluffy clouds drifted past in the distance. The green meadows rolled on almost endlessly, herds of sheep grazing as their shepherds watched over them.

 

“It’s beautiful out here,” Al said, his voice almost a whisper.

 

Ed nodded. “Yeah.”

 

The two brothers remained there just staring at their home town. There was the school out across the stream, kids circled around for lunch laughing and playing and eating homemade meals from their mothers. Workmen repaired the roads, stopping to eat and laugh about their lives. A train spouted steam in the far end of the town, telegraph wires running parallel the rails. There had been talk of running them to individual homes when a phone line could be connected, but no one took that rumor seriously yet.

 

“So you’re still going?”

 

Al nodded at Ed’s question. “Gen. Mustang said that he needed a new alchemist. I won’t be a state though, seems they don’t want one for this kind of mission. At least, not one who wasn’t there that day.”

 

Ed nodded, images of the Promised Day flashing through his mind before vanishing again. He knew they wouldn’t ever truly disappear from his memory, but Ed could accept that with each passing second they would fade enough that he wouldn’t have to live with them. “You’re gonna be safe right? I mean you won’t wind up getting in too much trouble?”

 

“C’mon, worried you’re gonna miss out on an adventure for a change?” Al playfully jabbed Ed on his right arm. “I’ll be fine, you know that Lt. Havoc and the rest of the squad are still going.”

 

“I know, but just promise me you’ll be careful.” Ed turned to Al and put a caring hand on the younger Elric’s shoulder. “You’re still my only brother after all.”

 

Pinako called up from the ground. “Boys, lunch is ready!”

 

Clambering down the ladder, Ed and Al smelled their lunch from the open kitchen window and grinned. Pinako had made stew to see Al off with, just like she’d promised. Den napped on the stairs to the back of the house, raising his he and smiling as Ed gave him a pat before walking into the kitchen.

 

Pinako stood on a stool at the stove, pipe firmly clasped in her mouth as she stirred the pot on the stove. “Well boys, hope you’re both hungry. Given that Ed’s finally got a body that actually looks like he could eat you’ll both need some extra food from now on.”

 

Ed chuckled as he took a seat. “As long as it’s something good and fresh, I’ll eat whatever you put on the table Granny.” Al shook his head. It was great that Ed and Pinako didn’t argue anymore, but there was a part of his heart that missed the back and forth.

 

Winry bounded downstairs, smiling as she finished wiping some grease from her hands. “Sorry, just had to finish up that piece for Mr. Welkin.” Pecking Ed on the check, she went to the sink to wash up and sat down with Ed. “So what time’s your train Al?”

 

“Three hours, I’m all packed so we don’t have to rush.” Taking some mitts, Al took the pot from the stove and set it on a stone on the table. Pinako tapped out some ash before joining the three, ladle twirling around her finger. “Thanks for lunch Granny, it smells great.”

 

“Well it’ll be a while before you get any good home cooking,” Pinako said, clambering atop a step-stool to reach the chair to dish out lunch. “After what you boys have gone through the past few years, you can afford to have a few more good meals in you before heading back out into the world.”

 

It was a simple meal, but that was what made it so memorable. Ed and Al talking about their adventures, Winry asking Ed if his leg was still in good order, Pinako scolding the boys for always putting their elbows on the table. Things that had been sorely absent for too long, and now there whenever needed. Quickly washing the dishes and gathering the luggage, Pinako waved at the three as they carried Al’s suitcases to the station.

 

“It’s just amazing to think about,” Ed said, staring up at the sky. “I mean there’s worlds beyond worlds out there, and you get to go to’em Al. I’m just jealous that you get to go.”

 

“Hey, there’s bound to be plenty of cool stuff left to do while I’m gone,” Al said. “Jerso and Zampano are training with Master, so they’re bound to need help once they get back from the island.”

 

Ed shuddered a little at the memories. “Those two have no idea what they’re in for.”

 

“Well I owe it to them,” Al said quietly. “I promised them I’d find a way to separate them from the animals they were combined with, and if the multiverse has the means to do so then I’m gonna find it.”

 

Ed clapped his brother on the shoulder. “I know you will Al.”

 

“Just make sure you let us know whenever you get back,” Winry said, giving Al a stern look. “If you’re going into this multi-whatever, it’ll probably mean you’ll be out of touch for longer than before. So don’t go thinking you can show up after you return with just a knock on the door.”

 

Al laughed off the threat, smiling as they came up on the station. “I promise Winry, I’ll always call as soon as I can get to a phone every time I’m back.”

 

The trio trudged up to the station, starting to sweat a little in the afternoon sun. The stationmaster and ticket seller both waved to the three, a train rolling up fifteen minutes later to a scattered group of passengers ready to leave. Families said their last goodbyes until return as lovers bid fond adieus. “Well, time to go again.” Al hugged Winry, and with a slightly longer one for Ed he picked up his things and boarded the train. “I’ll see you guys in a few months.”

 

“Just try to bring back something interesting,” Ed said. “Since we’ve gotten our bodies back we can’t collect scratches and cuts anymore.”

 

“ ** _That’s_** why your arm was always beat up!?”

 

Laughing and waving to Ed as the former-Fullmetal Alchemist held up his arms in meek defense, Al shut the window to his compartment and settled in for the ride to Central. He picked up one of the alchemy books he’d taken along, a newer work now that Father’s control over Amestiran alchemy had been broken. The book was talking about the new possibilities in alchemy now that there was a “new surge” after the coup which many public alchemic scholars were still trying to figure out. The book postulated new theories on chimeric transformation, possibly the chance to combine more than two animals into a functional whole. Al could live with that, so long as he never had to read that someone was again working on a chimera that could learn to speak.

 

The train ride seemed to roll together after a few hours, Al stopping into the dining car every few miles to grab a sandwich and coffee to keep from getting too hungry. A quick nap, a stop at East City to change cars, and he had switched to the Central Express line for the rest of the journey. Three days on the train, then time to meet this new mysterious group that had come to help them against Father without even knowing what they were fighting for.

 

“The Multiversal Task Force,” Al said aloud as he scribbled into the margins of the new book. “This should be interesting.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

* * *

Al looked around as the train pulled into Central Station, changed into a professional suit for the meetings at the capital that were bound to take place. Steam billowed around his compartment, the sounds of the station during the morning breaking over the hiss of steam and squeal of the brakes. As the cloud cleared, Al looked out into the sprawling station. Newstands and snack stalls served waiting passengers, porters hefting packages and pushing trolleys as military police patrolled. Mothers guided baby carriages through the crowds as businessmen checked watches and read their morning paper. Old men hobbled by on their canes, sitting on the same benches as young women with well-tailored outfits in what was surely coincidence.

 

Picking up his luggage, all walked out onto the platform and scanned for… “MSgt Fuery!”

 

Fuery turned, waving at Al as he motioned over to another familiar face. Following, Al smiled as Lt. Breda joined them. “Good to see you again Al. I didn’t realize it was you until you waved, guess we all need to get used to you as a person instead of a suit of armor.”

 

“I know, it’s so weird having to actually talk to people eye to eye again. I mean the first month I had to remember how to blink half the time.”

 

Breda clapped Al on the back. “Well it’s good to see you again kid. These MVTF guys wanted an alchemist, they sure as hell got one didn’t they.” Hefting one of Al’s cases, Breda and Fuery led Al to the street, where their car sat unmolested by the MPs thanks to the small sticker marking it as a military vehicle. The exterior of the station was almost as busy, cabs rolling to and from as more small stands waited outside hawking everything from fruits to souvenirs. A few homeless squatted outside, quiet and knowing that anything more aggressive than a hat in hand would earn them a reprimand from the MPs, maybe even a quick smack with their clubs to get them moving.

 

“SG-1, the ones who helped us on the Promised Day, they should be here in three hours.” Getting into the driver’s seat, Fuery pulled the choke and waited for the engine to make a steady rumble before putting the car into gear and pulling out into traffic. “There was a little hiccup though, Emperor Ling wants you to meet with the Xingese ambassador.”

 

Al raised an eyebrow. “What? Why?”

 

“Well the old ambassador got recalled,” Breda said from the front seat. “Turns out that he was an opponent of the Emperor’s family, and Ling’s been cleaning house. So he put someone who’s more than familiar with Amestris into the position.”

 

Al’s face lit up. There were only two people Ling would trust with such a position that matched the description, and as the Emperor of Xing he’d want Lan Fan to watch over the safety of the throne. “So she’s here already?” He couldn’t hold back the excitement in his voice.

 

Breda grinned as he looked back. “She got to Central two weeks ago.”

 

Stopping at a hotel so Al could check into a room and leave his things, the trio were driven to headquarters and greeted by Lt. Havoc and Lt. Falman. “Hey kid, how’s it to actually breathe again?”

 

“As good as it must be to walk again,” Al said, smiling as he shook Havoc’s hand. “How’s Gen. Mustang doing in Ishval?”

 

“Well he’s trying to work with the locals on a new infrastructure project,” Falman said, as the four escorted Al to the interior of headquarters. “The Ishvalans want to connect with the main railroads, and the general is thinking to put in a refueling station for freight trains running between Amestris and Xing.”

 

“That’ll be amazing,” Al said, following Havoc inside the building. Soldiers hurried about, everyone with a uniform walking about with a purpose even if they were talking about the mundanities of life like the next date for the range or annoyances in the barracks. “Just think, the ability to travel to Xing whenever you can get a train.”

 

Breda and Falman grinned, thinking about the technologies they’d seen working with the MVTF. “Kid, you ain’t seen amazing yet.”

 

Passing through several corridors, pausing at a small window to get Al the necessary credentials to allow him passage into the restricted corridors of headquarters, Al spared a glance at the guards standing at the doors. They weren’t like the guards at the front of the building with pistols in their holsters and rifles slung at their backs. These guards were behind solid concrete walls, and their weapons were in their hands with the safeties off. Where the soldiers outside had softer eyes that knew they weren’t expecting too much trouble, these recognized that there were things behind their doors they weren’t going to let anyone that wasn’t supposed to be let in get past. Even with the ID on his jacket, Al didn’t feel too comfortable as he passed one holding a submachine gun.

 

The corridors this far back in the HQ were empty, save for maybe a rare soldier or a pair of them striding with a seriousness greater than on the outside. The offices were smaller, without name plates or identifying symbols like other unit offices, even the windows had been replaced by thick slabs of concrete. If there had been life in the majority of headquarters, this was like being sent into the underworld, lit only by the lights above them.

 

“Where’s Fuhrer Grumman?” Al asked.

 

“He’s meeting with the prime minister again,” Havoc groaned. “Parliament has a few dozen questions a day now that he’s in charge, and they’re going crazy asking questions about the coup and why it wasn’t prevented.” He rolled his eyes, pulling out a fresh cigarette. “Makes me actually _wish_ for Bradley to be back in power again.” Al didn’t share the opinion, but given Havoc’s face he didn’t bother to speak up.

 

They came up to a final set of doors, these ones defended by four soldiers manning two machine guns. A sergeant gave a nod, and the group passed through into what anyone else could have been forgiven for mistaking as an empty storeroom. Just a concrete box, with a circle in the center.

 

Al looked around, seeing nothing actually happen and checked his watch. Two minutes before it was three hours. Seeing someone travel dimensions was amazing enough, but there was an even more exciting thought in the back of his mind. Soon, he’d be traveling through them himself.

 

There was a flash, bright enough that Al had to turn away to see the four soldiers grinning as they had all quietly donned sunglasses. Al gave a grin. “Good to know that Gen. Mustang being away hasn’t changed much of anything.”

 

The light died down, and Al turned back to see two men standing in the circle wearing suits with two large suitcases behind them standing on their ends. No, not on their ends, on wheels. Al laughed, “ _Wow, that’s ingenious,_ ” he thought, turning to look over the visitors. One was pale-skinned, with glasses and a head of short-cropped hair. The other was a massive man, rippling muscle evident under his suit and a shining bald head with a gold symbol embedded above his eyes. “Welcome back,” Havoc said, taking off his glasses and walking forward. “Daniel, Teal’c, this is Alphonse Elric, alchemist.”

 

“Hi,” Al said, walking over and shaking Daniel’s hand. “I know you probably don’t recognize me. I’m the suit of armor when you first came here.”

 

“Oh, right, it’s nice to meet the real you.” Daniel shook Al’s hand, Teal’c bowing slightly. “I’m Daniel, that’s Teal’c.”

 

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

 

“You too,” Al said, smiling to Teal’c. “So where are you both staying while you’re here?”

 

“Your military has given us lodgings in their officers barracks,” Teal’c said, he and Daniel taking IDs from Breda. “We will remain there until tomorrow.”

 

Al laughed. “Are you sure? I mean if you want I can put you up in my hotel, I have the money.”

 

“It’s more security kid,” Havoc said, leading the way to the doors as Daniel and Teal’c grabbed their luggage by an extendable handle. “Just trying to limit exposure for these two. Don’t need anyone asking questions about what happened during the eclipse after all.”

 

Al nodded, following the pair out into the hallway. “So, you’re a doctor?”

 

“Yes, archaeology and anthropology with expertise in linguistics as well.” Daniel shrugged as he realized Al’s expression was one of surprise. “Well with the work I do it comes in handy.”

 

“Dr. Jackson is also a formidable warrior,” Teal’c noted. “He has on countless occasions stood strong against a great many threats.”

 

Daniel shrugged as he pulled his suitcase behind him. “Well I mean I guess.”

 

“Well let’s hope we can wrap this up quick,” Havoc said. “We’re getting promoted in two days and I don’t want to waste time with too much ceremony.”

 

“Well that’s good isn’t it?” Al patted Havoc on the shoulder. “I mean now you’re earning more money, and you know the extra rank is gonna be even more impressive to any women you meet.”

 

Havoc grinned as he walked. “Yeah, well doing this job has kinda lead into a dry spell.” His teammates nodded sadly behind him. “Still, we’ve gotta get you up to speed. Daniel, got everything?”

 

“Yeah, we’ll be able to brief him along with…Fuhrer Grumman.” Al noticed the apprehensive tone in Daniel’s voice at the word but said nothing. “We’re still on time right, don’t we have to be in his office in twenty minutes?” Daniel checked his watch, adjusted for the present time in Amestris.

 

“Well at his rank you can play with time however you want,” Breda said. “There’s no such thing as being ‘late’ when you’re the fuhrer.”

 

Daniel sighed. “So a fuhrer is never late, nor early, he arrives precisely when he means to.” Teal’c raised an eyebrow at the statement. It was obviously a reference to something, but he’d yet to see that particular movie.

 

Al nodded. “Well it’s just nice to be back in Central and not have to worry about monsters or conspiracies for a change.”

 

“Yeah, now you’re a part of the conspiracy.” Breda ruffled Al’s hair. “Way to go kid, you’re moving up in the world.”

 

Al chuckled as they left the secured section of headquarters back to the mundane sections, though more than a few passing soldiers stole looks at Teal’s forehead. Moving to the elevators, Al stopped at a bank of phones as everyone else waited. Dialing, he smiled as he heard the receiver on the other end lift up. “ _Resembool Train Station._ ”

 

“Hi, this is Alphonse Elric,” he said cheerily. “I have a message to send to Edward Elric?”

 

The ticket seller chuckled on the other end of the line. “ _We’ll send someone up and have them told that you got there safe and sound Al,_ ” the woman said. “ _Be safe out there, we’ll see you when you get back._ ”

 

“Thank you ma’am.” Hanging up, Al rejoined the team at the elevators and waited as Havoc, Breda, Teal’c, and Fuery went up first. “So has Fuhrer Grumman been making sure to do what’s right by the nation?”

 

Falman nodded. “Gen. Mustang made sure to follow up once his new rank was official. He’s shut down the clandestine research groups and ensured that any trace of the circle was destroyed or filled in to cut it up. If anyone ever tried that again, they’d have to go through decades of work to make it happen.”

 

Al’s eyes narrowed. “He kept the files didn’t he.”

 

Falman nodded again. “Because if it starts up again, we want to make sure we know before it’s too late.”

 

Al scowled as he boarded a new elevator. The three immutable laws of alchemy still held; No human sacrifices, no human transmutation, no lead into gold. Al knew there would always be people trying to try to solve their problems if they were skilled enough in alchemy with a “quick” solution. It didn’t make him comfortable to know there were still archives within the military system. All it would take was one state alchemist with delusions of grandeur or desperate need to search enough of the archives hard enough to find what was hidden away.

 

Exiting the elevator five minutes later, Al walked past two guards standing ceremonially outside the fuhrer’s office. Stepping past with a nod, Al walked in to see Daniel setting up some kind of rectangular black box on his lap. “Hey, what’s that?”

 

“This?” Daniel turned it to Al, who realized with a shock that not only was it some kind of electrical device, but it had keys like a typewriter and had a glowing glass screen. “It’s called a laptop computer, you use it to write papers, do research, even watch movies. Wait, you have movies right?”

 

“Not like yours,” Falman said, patting Al on the shoulder as he walked to a seat in the office. Al just stood there for a second, staring in shock at the sight. The way Daniel spoke about a technology like that was like Al and Ed discussing liquid transmutation theory was astounding.

 

Two minutes after Al had eventually found a seat, the door opened and a familiar bespectacled face strolled through the door ranting. Havoc called out, “Room, ‘ten- _shun!_ ”

 

The four soldiers shot up as Fuhrer Grumman stormed through the door. “-Wish I had the same authority as when Bradley _was_ in power, I’d have him thrown in prison! No, wait, I’d appropriate his house for military needs and _then_ throw him in prison!” His two black-suited guards stood by the door as Grumman marched to his desk, took a breath, and smiled again. “As you were everyone, as you were. Alphonse, it’s a pleasure to see you again. I’m glad to see you’re as healthy as you should be. Being away from yourself mustn’t have been easy.”

 

“Granny made sure I ate enough for two people when I got back,” Al said with a smile. “Even after what Dr. Marcoh and Dr. Knox told her.”

 

“Well never underestimate what a mother will do for their child,” Grumman said, chuckling as he looked over a picture of a smiling Mrs. Bradley and a joyous Selim. “No matter what happens, they’re always there for their child.” Shaking his head with a small grin, Grumman faced Daniel. “Well, Dr. Jackson, I understand you’ve made some new friends again? Care to explain to young Mr. Elric what’s happened since you last saw him?”

 

Daniel nodded, setting the laptop on a table in front of Grumman’s desk. Al was amazed, the screen had turned into some kind of presentation. Stepping on front of the group, “Well, uh, after we first met you and your brother we’ve met several more teams. Well we realized that going into the multiverse was a bit of an adventure, so we formed the Multiversal Task Force.”

 

Havoc grinned. “We’re team two.”

 

“Right, yes, the other teams.” Daniel tapped a button, Al and Grumman watching with rapt attention as the image blinked to a set of pictures. “You remember Jack and Sam, they’re with us in SG-1.” Al nodded, remembering the two faces. An older, gray-haired man with a squared face and sharp brown eyes looked back at him in one picture, the other taken up by a blonde, short-haired woman with light blue eyes and a grin. “We’re basically the lead team at this point, so far we’ve gone on nine missions alongside other MVTF teams.” Tapping a button again, Al looked over a new image that came up.

 

More pictures. One was of a woman with long dark red hair covering her right eye, wearing armor like a knight with great expressive brown eyes. There was a man with spiky black hair, and deep blue eyes. For some reason, he wasn’t wearing a shirt. The last was of a blonde girl with a happy smile and bright brown eyes, a blue bow tied in her hair. “This is MV-1, from Fairy Tail. They were the first ones we ever met traveling the multiverse, right now they’re pretty much as experienced as we are with the whole situation.”

 

“Meaning they don’t know any more than you do,” Breda said with a laugh.

 

Daniel nodded as he tapped the button again. “That goes without saying. Anyway, this is MV-3, Korra, Asami, Mako, and Bolin.” Al looked over the faces. A short-haired, dark-skinned girl with blue eyes smiling at the camera. A woman with raven hair and emerald-green eyes looked at the viewer with a smirk. A black-haired man with a severe cut and orange eyes glared out of the screen, and another man with a more styled do with a toothy smile and eyes a slightly-darker shade of green.

 

Another tap of the button, and suddenly the screen was filled with almost twenty pictures, all wearing military uniforms of a kind Al had never seen before. Some were darker skinned, some were lighter skinned, but all had the same severe looks on their faces. “MV-4, the 1st Multiversal Reconnaissance Team. They come from a world that’s hundreds of years into the future, right now they’re helping to get us more advanced technologies that we can still wrap our heads around.”

 

“ _More advanced?_ ” Al’s jaw slackened even more. “ _This thing is running without being plugged in_ and _can show you things like this? What’s out there?_ ”

 

Six new pictures. One was of a severe-faced man with a pair of harsh green eyes and an evil grin. A massive bald-headed man with an eyepatch and grin. A serious looking man in a blue beret and a scowl. A short woman with a bored look and short brown hair. A less serious looking man, but still clearly military from the serious look on his face. A final man with a scraggly orange beard and a grin. “MV-5, the ‘Dead Six’, roughly on par with what we’re considering the baseline for technology but currently suffering from a major ecological catastrophe.”

 

A new set of pictures: A serious looking dark-skinned woman with short black hair and a tattoo under her right eye. A blonde woman with a caring expression. An old man with a scared left eye and a massive smile. A grinning brown-haired woman with goggles raised above her eyes. A bored looking man with a massive hat on his head and a cigar stuck firmly in his mouth. A young woman with long red hair and a muscular frame. A man encased in some kind of form-fitting armor, and what looked like a metal sculpture with bright lights on the forehead. “MV-6, technologically advanced, kind of at a developmental mid-point between our baseline and MV-4’s tech.”

 

Another image, and Al was surprised at how young these women all looked. Even with their bizarre hair colors, the fact that they barely looked older than he did was a shock. “MV-7, they actually found us. They’re actually our experts on how to research the functional aspects of magic, applying the scientific method to it.” Al wasn’t quite as impressed with that explanation of their role. There was no such thing as “magic”. “This girl here, Sunset Shimmer, she’s actually from a separate dimension we haven’t been to yet.”

 

“ _People can_ live _in other dimensions?_ ” Al shook his head. “That’s incredible,” he murmured. “I can’t believe you can just move between dimensions so easily.”

 

Fuery grimaced. “Oh, there’s nothing easy about it,” he moaned.

 

A new set of images, these women looking even younger if it was possible, and only one man there in them. Two were blonde with long hair, but one had hers done up in two balls on opposite sides of her head with long ponytails, and one had short blue hair. “MV-8, bit of a special case for us. They’re on the border of what we consider ‘ascension’, we’ll explain that in more detail later but they basically seem to have technology that borders on what we could consider magic.”

 

“ _Borders on magic? Now I’m really hearing everything._ ”

 

Daniel tapped the button again. Four pictures this time: A short-haired blonde woman with strong blue eyes, a smirking soldier with longer blonde hair than Al would expect a soldier to have, a bespectacled soldier with a placid face, but the fourth picture was a man with a massive scarred face and sad brown eyes. “MV-9, not really specialists in technology or magic but they do have knowledge of something we might need, in this case ‘war relief’. We’ve come across more than a few dimensions and planets where they could use that kind of help.”

 

One last tap of the button, and Al saw that the last image was just of a globe with a wreath wrapped around it. The word “RAINBOW” ran through it. “Finally, Team Rainbow. Uh, they actually argued against us even putting this patch right here. They’re basically a ‘part-time’ team if that makes sense, they’ve agreed to join with us for only extreme situations.”

 

“Ten and a half teams,” Grumman said, leaning back in his chair. “Quite a collection, all things considered. What do you think, Mr. Elric?”

 

Al snapped back from his concentration as Daniel shut the laptop. “Honestly it’s amazing sir, I mean there’s nothing like it that I’ve ever seen.”

 

“Exactly why we’re sending you my boy,” Grumman said with a sly grin. “You’re our only other expert on nothing we’ve ever seen.”

 

“We also require an expert in alchemy,” Teal’c said flatly. “With the posting of Gen. Mustang in the region of Ishval, we require someone of equal skill to assist us in understanding this ability.”

 

Al laughed a little. “It’s not quite an ability that you do or don’t have,” Al said, clapping his hands and placing them on the table. With arcs of electricity jumping off, Al had managed to sculpt a perfect replicate of his old armor. “Sure it takes a lot of study and effort, but eventually you manage to learn how to do it.” Another clap, and Al returned the table to how it was.

 

“Yes, well with the description of a god and a soul door we can’t exactly quantify that,” Daniel said, looking slightly awkward. Al was confused, and Daniel sighed. “Well it isn’t exactly something we can perfectly replicate.”

 

Al blinked. “Well I mean human transmutation is the only way you’ll get close to that, and unless you do alchemy is perfectly reasonable to carry out.”

 

“Unfortunately we tried that in our world,” Daniel said flatly. “Almost the same way as you did, circles and treating it like a science, only we came away from it with chemistry.”

 

Al decided to hold his questions for now. The idea of life without alchemy was a bizarre one, probably as much as Daniel and Teal’c considered a life _with_ it. He’d talk to the other scientists of their world and ask their opinions. “Well hopefully I’ll learn as much as I can.”

 

“And we get more answers for parliament,” Grumman growled. “Prime Minister Kennedy is doing his best, but of course Hatch has to get his two cenz in every time I go in for another hearing.”

 

Teal’c finally spoke. “It is safe to presume these are two political leaders within your nation.” Daniel said nothing, his eyes just went wide at the mention of the name “Kennedy” in the position of Prime Minister.

 

Grumman snorted. “Leaders is one way to say it. Personally, they’re more like two blind fools trying to wrangle up cats. Well we don’t need to fear them too much, Kennedy and Hatch are both high enough on the food chain to know what shouldn’t be told to the public. Still, we don’t need them knowing anything more than they should. Well gentlemen, after your promotion tomorrow we can see young Alphonse off to this new mission. Unfortunately, I just received a message walking in about a possible complication.”

 

Everyone tensed up as Grumman pulled out a letter, sealed with the royal crest of Xing. “Emperor Ling sent this several weeks ago. There’s a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo and several paragraphs even I won’t pretend to understand, but the basic gist is you’re taking along the present ambassador to Amestris to serve as the voice of the Xingese nation to the MVTF.” Grumman gave a grin like someone just told him some very juicy blackmail material on Minister Hatch. “Ambassador May Chang will be joining you.”

 

Al grinned. “I can't wait! You'll see Dr. Jackson, she's amazing!” Seeing the wide grins from the four soldiers, Al quickly cleared his throat and leaned back in his seat. “I mean the chance to strengthen our relationship with the Xingese people is of utmost importance after all.” Havoc didn’t even bother hiding the elbow he gave to Breda.

 

“She’s about finished talking with her replacement about life here in Central,” Grumman said, checking the clock on his wall. “If you move quickly you can catch her on her way to lunch.”

 

Al was out of the door so fast even Teal’c was impressed. Daniel could tell because both eyebrows went up. “I sense there’s a history?”

 

“Ah, to be young again,” Grumman said wistfully, leaning his chair back and looking up at the ceiling. “So, what about the Brotherhood of Nod? Have we found any trace of them again?”

 

“As of yet we have found no evidence of them,” Teal’c said. “We believe that if we are to come into contact with us again, it will result in a great conflict.”

 

Grumman nodded. “And does Gen. Hammond have any idea when that might be?”

 

Daniel shook his head. “If we knew that, sir, we’d have planned on stopping him by now.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

* * *

Al hurried from Headquarters straight for the Xingese embassy, dodging past couples and soldiers and men and women in fine suits. The lunch rush was just starting, and the streets crowding with people. Brushing past a man in a dark suit and hat carrying a briefcase, Al made it to what was becoming known as the “Embassy District”. Since Grumman had become fuhrer, a noticeable push had been made to bring Amestris into the community of nations. It hadn’t been perfect by any metric, Drachma especially had been frigid after the swift defeat of their “invasion” army at Ft. Briggs, Creta and Aerugo had come to accept the offer when they learned Xing had opened an embassy.

 

Al could see the banners of the Xingese emperor when he collided with a person walking in the opposite direction. Pushed back, Al snapped away from the embassy to see a mousy woman with short brown hair and glasses trying to keep a hold on several documents. “Sheska? Sheska!”  


The mousy librarian froze, staring at Al as if he had just told her she was the long-lost queen of Xerxes. “Uh, do I know you?”

 

Al patted his chest, smiling broadly. “It’s me, Al! Alphonse Elric!”

 

Sheska went white with shock. “No way! You finally took off that suit of armor, I can’t believe it!”

 

Al forced his smile to stay in place. “ _That’s right, she didn’t know about what happened at all._ ” Brushing that away quickly, he pointed to the files Sheska was carrying. “What’s that about? You’re still working for the Court Martial Office?”

 

“Oh, yeah, but they decided I wasn’t very good being a soldier,” Sheska said awkwardly. “Since I can’t shoot or do physical training that well, they just hired me as a civilian aide.”

 

“Well I’m glad you’re still working,” Al said with a smile. “Are you just coming out of the embassy?”

 

“Oh, yes, I just had to retrieve some documents from the Xingese about the coup,” Sheska said. “Fuhrer Grumman requested them personally, apparently he wants them for Prime Minister Kennedy to read over.”

 

Al nodded. “Well don’t get so distracted you read them as you’re walking.”

 

Sheska’s expression was completely serious. “Why do you think I would do that?”

 

Al chuckled. “Well I’ll see you later then Sheska, it was great talking to you again.” Waving as the clerk rushed off into the crowd, Al turned to the embassy and strode inside.

 

The interior was arranged differently compared to most Amestrian buildings. Chairs, tables, statues, and plants were arranged in small groupings that made no sense to Al’s eyes. He’d never been in a Xingese building though, so for all he knew this was a perfectly reasonable layout. Making his way to a young woman sitting at the front desk, he saw her smile wide as he approached. “Good afternoon sir,” she said happily in flawless Amestrian. “I am honored to welcome you to the Xingese embassy. How can I assist you today?”

 

“I’m looking to talk to the ambassador,” Al said politely. “I’m a friend of hers from her travels, my name is Alphonse Elric.”

 

The woman nodded, but as she reached for a telephone to call up to another office she froze and looked up at Al. “Alphonse…Elric?” The woman squealed, pressing a hand her face to try and cover her mouth and failing miserably to hide her expression. “Oh my goodness, you’re the one the ambassador spoke of, the gallant Golden-Haired Alchemist!”

 

Al smiled, but he didn’t quite know how to take the fact that May Chang had apparently decided to speak of him like he was some kind of mythic figure. “Well, I don’t know about gallant.”

 

Springing up from her seat the woman led Alphonse swiftly up the stairs to the second floor of the embassy, Al hurrying behind her as staff and guards watched him pass and whispered to each other in Xingese about the strange visitor with gold hair and eyes wait gold eyes oh my goodness _he’s Alphonse Elric!_

 

Al tried to ignore the now-dozens of eyes staring at him as he passed. “ _What kind of stories has she been telling about me?!_ ”

 

Led up to a door with the royal crest of Xing emblazoned in gold on the front, the receptionist led Al inside with a low bow. “M’lady ambassador, Mr. Alphonse Elric of Amestris wishes to speak with you.”

 

The response was instant. “Alphonse!”

 

Al was shocked to see that May Chang had gone through a growth spurt like he had. She was taller now, no longer wearing the practical traveling clothes from when he first met her and instead wearing what he’d learned was called a cheongsam when Winry had received a catalogue of fashions coming in vogue in Central City. She still had her hair done in the same style, but the loops were less frizzy than before and her skin had a healthier color from the good food an ambassadorship could provide.

 

May leapt over the desk and took a running jump at Al, wrapping her arms around him and going a mile a minute as she spoke.

 

“OhmygoshIhaven’tseenyouinagesandIcan’tbelieveyou’rebacknowIcan’twaittogowithyouonthis adventuredoyouthinkwecangotolunchbeforeweleaveItoldmystaffaboutthisandyouandthey-”

 

Al’s brain started to smoke, he was pretty such that he lost several more words because he couldn’t process them fast enough. “It’s good to see you too May,” he said pulling her off and giving her a confused but joyous smile. “How about we go catch up over lunch? There’s bound to be some good food around here somewhere after all.”

 

“Oh there is,” May said, wrapping her arms around Al’s right and leading him out. “Joo Dee, I should be back in an hour if anyone calls for me.” Joo Dee bowed loyally as May led Al out the door.

 

“It’s really good to see you again May,” Al said, letting May guide him down the street out of the embassy. “I’m sorry we haven’t kept in touch lately, Ed and I have been doing a lot of work around the house and Resembool.”

 

“I had figured,” May said happily. “You and your brother never did strike me as the kind to just stop helping people. It was probably one of the reasons Fuhrer Grumman chose you for the task of joining this new group.”

 

Al nodded. “What about you? You’re fine with being sent on this kind of mission by your new emperor?”

 

May sighed. “Well he is my emperor like you said, I can’t exactly disobey him.” She smiled as she walked then, looking up to the sky. “He did keep his promise though. The various clans have been unified by his rule, and even though there was some difficult time to process the clan leaders agreed that the system should be changed.”

 

Al laughed. “That’s great then. Now no one has to worry about the clans warring with each other anymore right?”

 

“I am glad, yes,” May said, before a diabolical glint formed in her eye. “Still, I would love to face Ling one on one to show him that the Chang clan was always the superior one.” Al laughed nervously, hoping that lunch would be enough to keep May from launching into anything too treasonous.

 

The Savoy Central was considered on of the finest dining experiences in Amestris, the finest cuts of meat paired with the freshest vegetables and loaves of hot bread served with every meal. Impeccably dressed waiters stepped, not shuffled, between the tables carrying silver trays as the tables closest to the kitchens were tortured by the intoxicating aromas that came through every time a waiter left with a new meal for the dining room. An older gentleman stood at the front, his perfectly waxed mustache pointing out like the spines on a hedgehog. As Al and May entered, he smiled and bowed his head. “Ah, Ambassador Chang. Welcome again to the Savoy. And who is the young gentleman with you this fine day?”

 

“An old friend, Alphonse Elric,” May said, Al noticing she gripped his arm a little more tightly. “He’ll be joining me for lunch today, and I expect that he’ll find the service just as excellent as I have.”

 

“Of course miss, right this way.” Taking two leather-bound menus in hand, the maître d led Al and May to a table off to the right of the restaurant, Al feeling suddenly out of place compared to the fine suits and elegant dresses around him. Pouring the two some water, the maître d soon left Al and May to their own devices.

 

“So,” May said, cheerily looking across the table. “I read some of what Gen. Mustang has seen in these other nations he’s been to. Sounds like another adventure, doesn’t it?”

 

 Al shook his head. “I haven’t had a chance to see what we’re going up against.” May shuddered. “It’s bad?”

 

May nodded, her face twisted up as if Yoki had just walked through the door. “I have the files back at the embassy, you’ll need to read up.”

 

Al nodded as the waiter came up. “How many files are there?”

 

May let out a breath. “I only just finished up the ones I got from a month ago.”

* * *

“Lt. Jean Havoc! Lt. Heymans Breda! Lt. Vato Falman! MSgt. Kain Fuery! Report!”

 

Al and May watched as the four marched from behind the assembled company of troops up to Fuhrer Grumman. Behind him, a soldier held a guidon. The Amestrian seal sat in the center, written above it, “1st HQ RGMT”. The four men marched up before Grumman, Havoc calling out cadence as they moved. The four halted before Grumman and Havoc called out, “Right face.” Turning as one, the four faced Grummand. “Hand salute. Good morning sir.”

 

Grumman returned the salute, and as he dropped it the four arms snapped to their sides. A sergeant major beside Grumman held out a sheet of paper and read out in a boom voice, “Attention to all who here be present! Be aware that in displaying the qualities of loyalty, integrity, and intelligence necessary to advance in rank the nation of Amestris does bequeath the rank of Warrant Officer to Kain Fuery. All military personnel of lesser grade in service are hereby required to follow all appropriate and direct orders given by him unless ordered otherwise by an officer of superior grade to himself. This rank is hereby bequeathed this ninth day of September, 1917 under the direct authority of Fuhrer.”

 

The ceremony went on as such, each rank being read out for each man. Falman and Breda were both promoted to first lieutenant, and Havoc found himself in the position of captain. With their new ranks on their shoulder boards and handshakes from Grumman, the four snapped back to attention, saluted, and marched back to the rear of the formation. The sergeant major barker, “On the order, congratulate the newly promoted soldiers. _FALL OUT!_ ”

 

The company scattered, several dozen soldiers all congregating and congratulating the four. Havoc laughed along with the others, the majority of congratulations involving some variation on the phrase, “Finally get a date”. It was the last congratulation that got his attention though. “Maybe now you’ll be able to command some respect as well as handle a gun.”

 

Havoc turned about and saw Mustang standing proudly, hair slicked back and his generals boards proudly shining on his shoulders. Hawkeye stood close behind him, talking happily with Grumman. “Boss!” Havoc happily saluted, Mustang returning the salute with a smile and shaking Havoc’s hand. “Hey, how’s Ishval looking?”

 

“Better than ever,” Mustang said, his smile for once genuine when he spoke of the Southeast. “We’re working with the local leaders to develop a rail line for the region, open up Xingese markets for the rest of the country and bringing trade to the people.” Maybe it was Havoc hallucinating, but Mustang’s eyes looked misty. “How’s things back at the SGC?”

 

Havoc navigated away from the larger groups, speaking in hushed tones. “Tricky. Gen. Hammond’s government is leaning on him to find more powerful weapons, dangerous ones that they can’t necessarily understand or control.”

 

Mustang’s smile vanished like mist in a midday sun. “Governments are always the same aren’t they.”

 

Havoc nodded, jerking his head over to Al and May. “Don’t worry boss, they’re gonna learn that one fast.”

 

Mustang nodded. “I’ll be honest, I’d prefer if Fullmetal was going instead. I’m not sure Al’s going to have what it takes.”

 

Havoc blinked. “All the things that kid’s been through and you don’t think he has what it takes?”

 

Mustang paused, thinking over what he said. “You’re right. I don’t think any of them have what it takes to see what’s out there.”

 

With their new ranks safely on their shoulders, the four soldiers shed their Amestrian uniforms and donned their fatigues for travel with the MVTF. Al looked at the designs, particularly a patch on their right shoulders. It was a circular patch, a pyramid underneath a circle at the top of it. In the center was the Amestrian seal, breathing orange flame and carrying a pistol in a claw. A joined sun and moon were stitched behind the dragon, the alchemic symbol of the perfect being. “MV-2” was apparently tattooed on the dragon’s arm, and written underneath was the phrase, “Untamed”

 

“Like it?” Breda grinned, patting the patch. “We saw that in the MVTF’s headquarters, units have these patches custom-made for each other. We asked how we could get some, turns out the rest of the teams wanted some too. We’ll get you both some after we finish up here.”

 

“Isn’t it a little,” May said, looking at the gun and flame. “Violent?”

 

“Not from what SG-1 said,” Fuery mentioned, thinking about the statement as he zipped up his jacket. “Actually from what Col. O’Neill said it’s actually pretty tame.”

 

Before Al could ask any more questions, Havoc threw on a cap like he’d never seen before and grinned. “Alright kids, let’s get this show on the road.” He blinked, and looked to the team. “Hey, if Col. O’Neill asks I never used a cliché, agreed?”

 

“Agreed.”

 

Handing over his ID to the guards manning the machine guns, Al followed the four soldiers along with Teal’c and Daniel inside and looked around, he and May setting their luggage down on the floor. “So, how do we know when it starts?”

 

Breda chuckled and raised his watch. “Five…Four…Three…Two…”

 

Al was suddenly engulfed in a bright beaming light, and noticed that the soldiers had donned their sunglasses before he had shut his eyes. After a minute, the light assaulting his eyelids started to die down and Al looked out to reveal Al was standing in a different concrete room, only now he was surrounded by soldiers in green camouflaged uniforms holding rifles like he’d never seen before.

 

“ _Stand down,_ ” an older, accented voice ordered calmly. “ _Welcome back MV-2, and welcome to you both Mr. Elric and Ms. Chang._ ”

 

“Nice to be back sir,” Havoc said with a wave. “C’mon you two, gotta get you up there to meet the boss.”

 

Al nodded numbly, looking to May as they followed the team past the soldiers slowly lowering their rifles to the floor as two of them grabbed Al and May’s boxes. The entire room was massive, tall as the tunnels he’d been in when fighting the homunculi. The walls were lined with pipes and small metal boxes with glass on the front of them. “ _A camera? Why?_ ”

 

Following Havoc up the stairs, Al looked around the briefing room. A large seal was on the wall: An eagle with a white head, perching atop a rope above a shield. Bolts of lightning struck from the center of it, surrounded by thirteen stars on a blue field. Around it all the letters, “Department of the Air Force United States of America”.

 

A full-chested man in a short-sleeved blue shirt with two stars where his rank would be smiled as Al entered the room, his smile polite and his bald head beaming. “Welcome to the SGC Mr. Elric, Ms. Chang. I’m Gen. George Hammond, overall commander of the MVTF. It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”

 

“Pleasure to meet you sir,” Al said, shaking Gen. Hammond’s hand. “I hope I can help however I can.”

 

“Well you both look young enough for the rest of the people we’ve been recruiting.” Al looked at the two other people in the room. An older man with short gray hair and a wry smile, a woman with short blonde hair and intelligent eye; Col. O’Neill and Maj. Carter. “How ya doing?”

 

“Thank you colonel,” Gen. Hammond said, looking more amused than annoyed. “We’re frankly quite glad you were willing to take this position Mr. Elric, alchemy has so far escaped our understanding.”

 

“Well anything we can do to help sir,” Al said, gesturing to May. “I was curious when I heard that myself, what precisely about it is giving you trouble?”

 

Gen. Hammond nodded to the blonde woman. “Maj. Carter is our resident field expert on theoretical matters. Our magic specialist, Ms. Shimmer, is currently handling her own tasks.”

 

May laughed. “Alchemy and alkahestry aren’t magic,” she said, smiling at Gen. Hammond and Carter. “Both are sciences, you need to study them with intense concentration to get any use out of them.”

 

“Well we had alchemy in our dimension,” Carter said, sounding like she thought she was being incredibly patient. “For hundreds of years self-proclaimed alchemists were obsessed with things like turning lead into gold, or finding elixirs for eternal life. I mean they thought mercury would give people longevity.”

 

May laughed. “We thought the same thing, but eventually we figured out how to harness the Dragon’s Path.”

 

“See, that’s why we can’t use alchemy,” Carter said. “We can’t recreate a ‘dragon’s path’ here, or possibly in other parts of the multiverse. We’d need to have stable and repeatable means to actually make a use of alchemy as you understand it.”

 

Gen. Hammond nodded. “I don’t know how much you’ve managed to read about our present situation Mr. Elric, but it isn’t precisely what a person could call beneficial. At present our forces are exploring both our own universe and the multiverse. If we could manage to reproduce alchemy and formalize a training standard for our people we’d have an advantage over our enemies.”

 

Al and May shared a look. “Didn’t Gen. Mustang explain any of this to you?”

 

“Oh he did,” Carter said, taking out a folder with “ALCHEMY” stenciled on the front. “He mentioned that there was one primary rule behind transmutation, the law of equivalent exchange, split into two laws. The law of conservation of mass and the law of natural providence.”

 

Al nodded. “He mentioned the three parts of transmutation as well?”

 

“Comprehension, deconstruction, and reconstruction,” Carter said. “We’ve been trying with several pre-made circles he left us but we’ve gotten nowhere with testing them.”

 

Al was about to speak when Carter laid out several circles on sheets of paper. “Wait, I thought you said you were testing, where did you get all these?”

 

“We saved the circles on a server within the base,” Carter said, laying out the circles before her. Al made a note to ask what a "server" was later. “Now what Gen. Mustang said is that comprehension is the key factor, otherwise you can’t proceed to deconstruct and reconstruct the materials you’re using. Only we’ve had several chemists and physicists cleared with the SGC try their hand and none of them have had any success.”

 

Al looked confused. “So, what’s a physicist?”

 

Carter took a breath. “A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the study of the physical properties of the universe. How matter can be converted into energy, observing particle effects and reactions, and in the case of our work trying to gain a more secure understanding of magic, alchemy, and bending.”

 

“Well you’ll want to tell these physicists that they need a master to teach them how alchemy functions,” Al said politely. “You can’t just learn it, it takes years of practice and training to understand the intricacies of Equivalent Exchange.”

 

“That is precisely what we didn’t want to hear,” Gen. Hammond said, his voice carrying his disappointment. “We don’t have years to work with, Mr. Elric. Hence our need to understand why alchemy isn’t functioning for our people here.”

 

“Maybe alkahestry would be a more fitting technique?” May smiled happily. “It’s possible that Amestrian-style alchemy is too difficult to carry over. Not to be rude Alphonse, but it was controlled for centuries by Father.” Al nodded, it was possible that Amestrian alchemy wasn’t translating over because its teachings had been corrupted from the start.

 

“A differing technique may be possible,” Carter said. “How does alkahestry function? And please, don’t say dragons taught you.”

 

Before May could explain about the Sage of the West, sirens started to blare in the base. “ _Unauthorized offworld activation, security teams to stations._ ”

 

Gen. Hammond was up from the chair, moving downstairs with a sped that surprised Al given his age. Following closely, Al watched as the teams spoke to a man sitting behind a larger screen similar to what Daniel had been using back in Amestris. “It’s SG-9’s IDC sir.”

 

Hammond nodded. “Open the iris, have medical teams standing by.”

 

Al watched as the circle in the center of the room he’d arrived in shifted, metal panels pulling back from the center of it. A bright blue shimmering mass was behind the metal, and seconds later two men came stumbling in, one hanging off the shoulders of another. Al watched as they fell on the ramp leading up to the circle, two of the soldiers rushing forward and dragging them away as one shouted, “Close the iris, close the damn iris!”

 

As the “iris” slid shut, Gen. Hammond moved downstairs. Al started to move too, but he and May were held back by Havoc. “Hold off kid, this is his show to run.”

 

Gen. Hammond stormed into the gate room, taking in the sight of half of SG-9. Maj. Kovacek was wounded, his uniform burned by an energy weapon in several places. “What happened major, where’s the rest of your team?”

 

“Dead sir,” Kovacek gasped, the man barely holding himself up. “That freaking thing killed’em, I don’t even know if there’s bodies left.”

 

“Stand down son, you’re back and you got as many as you could back.” Gen. Hammond stepped back, letting the medics get to work to save Kovacek and Lt. Ardin. As the two were taken to the infirmary Gen. Hammond turned to the control room to see O’Neill and Havoc give him a nod. They were ready to respond.

* * *

May had her hands held at her mouth, staring down at the infirmary. “What happened to him?”

 

“Energy weapons,” Carter said, looking down with them as the surgical team cut off and peeled pieces of Ardin’s unconscious body.  “The marks aren’t from a staff weapon though, it looks more like it was some kind of concentrated beam.”

 

“Only the Asgard are known to possess such weapons,” Teal’c observed. “If this race was capable of developing such means of war, whatever destroyed them must have been incredibly powerful.”

 

“This is horrible,” May whispered, watching as another swath of uniform had be to half-peeled, half-cut off Ardin. “How will he be treated?”

 

“He’ll have to get skin grafts at the very least,” Carter said, shaking her head at the sight. “He’ll live, but he won’t exactly go on unscathed.”

 

Havoc scratched the back of his head, wishing for all the world he could have a smoke within the SGC. “Did they say when Kovacek would be ready to talk about what happened?”

 

“Another hour, Dr. Frasier doesn’t want to overtax him even if Gen. Hammond wants answers.” Carter turned toward Teal’c. “The Jaffa wouldn’t have any legends about this would they?”

 

“None that I could tell of with any certainty.” Teal’c turned away and moved into the corridor. Al, May, and Carter followed him as he moved. “As for the state of the world, it is possible that we may have come across another civilization that these ascended beings attempted to assist.”

 

“Makes you wonder how many might be out there,” Carter thought. “You know, Daniel might have some kind of idea about this though. I mean if the Ancients had these kinds of disputes it’s possible it’s reflected somewhere in mythology.”

 

“Ancients?” Al tried to keep up with the conversation. “Maybe I missed something, what are Ancients?”

 

“Well it’s kind of in the name,” Carter said with a shrug. “They built the stargate network, and the quantum mirror that allowed us into the multiverse. The only problem is that the ones we’ve encountered so far have been exiled by the collective, we haven’t managed to find any one of them still in their home that we can get any answers from.”

 

May spoke up. “Why haven’t they contacted you? They must know you’re looking for them by now after all.”

 

“We think they have an agreement between themselves that forbids them from interacting with a species that hasn’t reached their level of development,” Carter said, Al noticing a trace of sadness in her tone. “The ones we’ve met have all been cast out of their plane of existence for trying to assist others.”

 

“They’re punished for helping people?” May huffed. “Well I don’t like the sound of these Ancients then. They sound like they’re too proud for their own good.”

 

Teal’c raised an eyebrow as they walked. “You believe that the governments in your world would be capable of utilizing the technologies they possess solely for ethical reasons?” May started to speak, then focused on walking down the corridor.

 

A door up ahead opened, and Al saw a woman in a strange jumpsuit walk out. She was dark-skinned, with a tattoo under her right eye and a patch similar to what all had seen his friends wearing as they were transported to the SGC. “Good morning Maj. Carter, Teal’c. Are these the new teammates for MV-2?”

 

“Indeed,” Teal’c said, moving aside. “Alphonse Elric and May Chang.”

 

Pharah held out a hand. “Fareeah Amari, callsign Pharah. Pleasure to meet you both.”

 

Al shook Pharah’s hand. “Likewise. Are you from this world?”

 

Pharah chuckled. “Hardly. We’re from a separate dimension, the same as yourselves.”

 

Carter watched as a trio of intelligence officers left the room Pharah had come from. “What’s going on?”

 

Pharah shrugged. “They had questions about the sightings of the men in suits some of the teams have noticed, and why we keep smelling cigarette smoke in odd places.”

 

“Well glad to see they’re taking it seriously at least,” Carter said, somehow still sounding annoyed despite her words. “What about Overwatch’s recall, has Winston managed to make a new roster yet?”

 

Pharah shook her head. “We think that Talon’s attack on Gibraltar snatched more names than we first thought. Winston’s doing his best to gather the few remaining names but McCree doesn’t seem very hopeful.”

 

Carter grabbed Pharah’s shoulder. “Well if we need to go in against this Talon group, just tell us when okay?” Pharah nodded, patting Carter’s shoulder as she moved through the corridors. Turning back, Carter kept moving to her lab. “Okay, so seeing as we’re gonna be moving through the stargate soon I need to at least get a basic idea of what you both can do.” Walking into the center of the room, she put an iron ingot from the bottom drawer of a banged-up desk and set it out in the open. “Who wants to go first?”

 

Al and May looked at each other and shrugged. “I’ll go first then,” Al said, clapping his hands and slamming them down on the ingot. As Teal’c and Carter watched the room was filled with light as arcs of electrical energy emerged from Al’s fingers as he pulled them back. The ingot shifted, and turned into a statuette of his old armor. “What do you think?”

 

“An impressive display,” Teal’c said, Carter looking over the creation. “No doubt you are also capable of using such techniques in battle?”

 

Al nodded. “I’m not quite as skilled as Gen. Mustang, but I know how to handle myself.”

 

Carter nodded. “Well it looks pretty solid. What about you Ms. Chang?”

 

“It’s May,” the girl said with a smile. Before Carter could realize May had grabbed several throwing knives May had already thrown five onto an opposite wall and five into the floor. Smiling, May slammed her hands down and filled the room with lightning again. On the opposite wall, several metal spikes now jutted out of the steel, Teal’c turning to Carter and watching as she took in the sight.

 

“You know that has to be put back right?” May nodded, looking a little confused as she reformed the wall. Carter sighed and nodded. “Just needed to make sure you weren’t going to be a jerk.”

 

Al and May shared a look at that statement.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

* * *

Maj. Kovacek grunted as he raised his bed up to where he could sit. Gen. Hammond, O’Neill, Carter, and Havoc were gathered around as he spoke. “We were in what we were pretty sure was the city center, about two klicks from the gate. Ardin and I, we decided to scope the place out, try to see if maybe there wasn’t anything worth finding.”

 

Gen. Hammond nodded. “What about Lt. Mankin and Capt. Marco?”

 

“They went out further, trying to see if there was any kind of archive we could use.” Kovacek grunted as he tried to sit up a little straighter, but the burns on his arms and chest weren’t having it. “Ten minutes later they’re calling over the radio that we need to get to the gate. I tried to wait for as long as possible sir, but then the beams started raking our position. It was either get out or risk damaging the DHD.”

 

Gen. Hammond nodded. “It’s alright, we’ll make sure they’re brought back son.”

 

Carter leaned in. “Sir, what attacked you?”

 

“Never got a good look at it,” Kovacek said quietly, sounding ashamed that he’d been unable to secure such valuable intelligence. “It was probably big. Whatever those weapons were, they were powerful. Before we gated back I saw the ground around us, it was glassed.”

 

Carter nodded as Gen. Hammond patted Kovacek’s arm where it wasn't burned. “You rest up son, we’ll make sure your team comes back.”

 

Kovacek nodded, easing back down. “Yes sir, thank you sir.”

 

Dr. Frasier waited for Gen. Hammond to turn away before speaking. “We’re gonna keep you on some heavy sedatives to keep the pain in check colonel, we’ll get started on skin grafts as soon as possible.” Giving a nod to the nurses, Frasier turned away and went to Gen. Hammond. “It was definitely a directed energy weapon of some kind sir, and the wounds confirm that it wasn’t a blast like a staff weapon.”

 

“Okay, someone help me figure out if that makes a difference?” Havoc looked a little surlier than he would normally, Dr. Frasier had been thinking about introducing him to nicotine gum at least while he was in the SGC.

 

“It means that whatever attacked SG-9 requires a steady and constant source of power to operate,” Carter said. “The ability to maintain a beam capable of burning human flesh at a distance comparable to a rifle for our technology means a massive energy requirement to do so. If we can cut off the power source of whatever attacked we can probably stop it and still preserve the weapon for study.”

 

Havoc nodded. “Think it could get Kinsey off our backs?”

 

“At the very least it’ll give us some breathing room.” Carter looked to Gen. Hammond. “Sir, we’re ready to gate now, at the very least we can bring SG-9 home.”

 

Gen. Hammond nodded. “SG-1 and MV-2 will gate in six hours. I expect you all to get Mr. Elric and Ms. Chang ready in time.”

 

“On it sir,” O’Neill said with nonchalance. “We’ll make sure they’re dressed for their first day out.” Leading the way to the elevators, O’Neill looked to Havoc over his shoulder. “Think they’ll be able to handle themselves?”

 

“Those kids have seen their fair share of crazy,” Havoc said. “I mean Al’s been a suit of armor for half a decade, and May’s been with the boss when he took on Father in the coup.” Havoc gave a shrug as the elevator arrived. “That enough of a job history?”

 

O’Neill nodded. “It’ll be a start.”

 

Taking the elevator down to the mess, the trio found Al and May talking with Teal’c and Daniel over some plates of lunch. “So the Goa’uld don’t make any of their technologies?”

 

“Our belief is that the Goa’uld merely co-opted the technologies of the Ancients for their use,” Teal’c said, sipping on a cup of coffee. “As they are already biological parasites, our current theory is that they are as such for technology as well.”

 

“Sam, Jack,” Daniel said, looking up at the door. “How’s SG-9?”

 

“They’ll live,” O’Neill said. “Pack it up kids, we’re heading through in six hours.”

 

“I would recommend you both take a feline rest then,” Teal’c said. Al and May both looked confused before Teal’c tried again. “A cat nap?” They both “Oooooh”’d and nodded. Three hours later, they were both rested and moving to strap on their gear.

 

May looked at her uniform in confusion as she strapped her recall bracelet on. “Where do I keep my knives?”

 

“They weren’t designed to hold knives,” Daniel admitted, looking at the armful of throwing knives May had retrieved from her things. “I mean there are slots for a combat knife or two but we’ll have to get you a bag if you want to carry any around like you’ll need.”

 

“Don’t worry kid, we’ll have you both go through pistol qualification when we get back,” Breda said, smiling as he strapped on a pack. “It’s actually pretty crazy, the kind of stuff they use here. No alchemy sure, but wait until you see a helicopter, or a jet.”

 

Al started to ask what those were, but Havoc threw him a bag and motioned for him to hold it open for May. With a bag of knives all set to go, the teams adjusted themselves and checked Al and May over before moving for the embarkation room.

 

“ _Chevron four locked,_ ” the controller said, tapping at something that Al guessed was like the typewriter keys on Daniel’s laptop. That wasn’t as awe-inspiring as watching the “Stargate” spin. Al started to walk toward it, eyes wide as the seemingly-stone device spun about. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder pull him back, and he turned to see Teal’c looking down on him. “I would not approach until after the device activates Alphonse Elric.”

 

“What? Why would I have to wait-“

 

“ _Chevron seven locked!_ ”

 

Turning back, Al’s mind went blank as the stargate activated, and a great jet of blue erupted out of the center of the gate before being sucked back. Eyes wide, Al stared as the blue surface of the gate rippled like water on a lake.

 

Gen. Hammond came over the intercom. “ _SG-1, MV-2, you have a go._ ”

 

O’Neill gave a thumbs up and led the way up the ramp and through the gate. Al and May stood slack-jawed as the teams strolled through, until Breda patted them both on the back and urged them forward. Taking a breath, Al looked to Mei and went forward. He could hear the surface of the stargate moving, almost sounding like water on a shore yet also sounding like a gel being stirred. Touching it, Al slowly pulled his hands back and looked over his fingers. He gave a look to Breda, who chuckled. “You’ll wanna exhale first, trust me.”

 

Al nodded, letting out his breath and shutting his eyes as he stepped through the gate.

 

Al’s eyes bolted everywhere, the sensation of stepping through the gate slowly wearing off but still giving him the sensation that he just somehow walked through ice-cold water without getting wet. His eyes finally locked on Havoc, and stumbling he nearly tripped down a set of stone stairs toward him. Havoc turned, saw Al, and moved over. “Hey, hey easy kid, you’re back on the ground now. Take a few breaths and lean on me. Fuery, go and make sure May comes out okay.”

 

Fuery rushed past, Al starting to get his bearings and realizing that the grass he was walking on was in the middle of a sprawling, massive city. As he looked around he saw massive square skyscrapers stretching into the skies, clouds even passing through them and surrounding the tallest spires. Wind whistled through the highest peaks of the buildings, a ghostly howl among the empty streets before him. The streets were filled with what looked like cars, but designed by someone who went for curves and sleek designs. There were broken windows everywhere, but no sign of anyone that might have broken them.

 

_SCHLUP!_

 

Al turned, and saw Fuery underneath May’s arm carrying her down the stairs before the gate as May looked around in about the same state Al was in. May looked around, up at the buildings, then to Al. Both smiled, and both realized at that moment they were on a new world. Giggling, Al turned around again to see SG-1 looking around, waiting for something to happen. After maybe five minutes, O’Neill nodded. “Alright, this’ll do for now. Carter, Havoc, you two get started on a base camp. Teal’c, you and I will get to scouting. The rest of you keep on guard, we don’t know what this thing looks like or where it’ll come from.”

 

Al finally found his voice again. “What about us sir?”

 

O’Neill thought for a minute as Teal’c started to move out into the city. “You two see if your alka-seltzer works here, if it does I want you both laying pit traps around the gate to give us some time to get outta here if this thing finds up.” Donning his sunglasses, O’Neill rolled out into the abandoned cityscape with Teal’c and soon vanished among the winding streets.

 

Al carefully let go of Havoc, standing on his own as the strength returned to his legs. Taking a breath, Al clapped his hands and slammed them onto the ground. The earth rose up into a square, then formed into a spike. Nodding, Al returned it to normal and looked to May. The alkahest drew her pentagram, threw down her knives, then threw five more into the distance. The same result, and both practitioners went to work around the park.

 

Al went around the perimeter with Havoc, the captain whistling as he stared up at the skyscrapers. “Damn, you could see for miles from up there. Kinda makes you wonder where everyone went.”

 

“I know, I keep waiting for someone to come out of the buildings and ask us what we’re doing.” Al scanned the streets as he made another pit trap; a hole with spike on the bottom covered with a thin layer of sod. “What just empties out a city like this?”

 

“Dunno, doesn’t look like there was a-” Havoc took a step and froze. Looking down, he shook his head. “Nevermind, found the fight.”

 

Al turned and saw Havoc lifting his leg. Underneath where his boot had been, the soil had been turned into a rough glass. “Fulgerite,” Al said, kneeling down and feeling the space. “Those men from SG-9 must have been here when they were attacked.”

 

“Doesn’t tell us where from though,” Havoc grunted. “Dammit, they didn’t tell us what it was either. Maybe it’s invisible?”

 

“God, I hope not,” Al said. “Immortal is bad, invisible is just scary.”

 

Finished with the traps, Al went back to the center of the park where the gate stood and saw Carter and Daniel talking over a dais just to the left of the gate. “What’s that?”

 

Carter turned and smiled, moving out of the way for Al to see. “We call it the Dial Home Device. The majority of gates in the system have them, they’re basically a way to dial to any gate on the network.”

 

Al looked over the device. There was a massive orange crystal set in the center, and around it were symbols like the ones on the ring of the gate. “So you press them in sequence and it dials the proper address, like a telephone?”

 

“Pretty much,” Daniel said, smiling as he scribbled down in a notebook and showed it to Sam. “Okay, that should do it for us. When should Jack and Teal’c be on their way back?”

 

“I’d give them another hour before we get worried,” Carter said calmly as Fuery and Falman set up some tents. “Do you think we can find anything in the city Daniel?”

 

Daniel tucked the notebook away and looked out onto the city. “Well hopefully. I mean this city is massive, there’s bound to be some record somewhere of what happened to the people in it. Just depends on how long they’ve been gone for.”

 

May walked up, staring at the spires far above. “How long ago do you think that was?”

 

Daniel shook his head. “I honestly don’t know. I mean the broken windows could mean it’s been a decade but we don’t know what they used to build their cities. For all we know they could have been gone for a millennia, almost all of their records could be destroyed just by being forgotten.”

 

Al turned back to look over the city. He remembered what Ed told him about the ruins of Xerxes, left to decay in the middle of the desert. Used as a hiding place by those who had nowhere else to go. “ _If nothing else, we’ll find a way to tell your story,_ ” Al though, looking out onto the empty buildings and derelict vehicles. “ _I promise we will._ ”

* * *

The rest of that planet’s day was spent setting traps, mining approaches, and eventually settling down for the night. O’Neill let out a sigh, leaning back onto the ground as he packed up the remains of an “MRE”. “So, you were a suit of armor. Tell us about that.”

 

Al blinked, snapped away from his contemplation that SG-1’s world had found a way to store fish in a way that kept it fresh for years. “Oh, my soul bond. Well, it’s kind of a long story.”

 

O’Neill put his arms behind his head and lowered his ballcap over his eyes. “We got time.”

 

Al brought his legs close, wrapping his arms around his knees and looking down at the ground. “Well after we tried to bring back our mother, Ed did what he could to bring me back. Only he only paid the toll once already, so he couldn’t bring my body back too.”

 

O’Neill nodded. “Can’t spend nothing for something.”

 

Al nodded. “Well he managed to bind my soul to one of our father’s old armors. If it hadn’t been for that, I might have never come back.” SG-1 was entranced now, but Havoc and Falman just stared down at the lantern in the center of their small circle. “It wasn’t like being dead I think, more like I was watching life through one of those screens I saw back in the base. I had to practice so often just to grip things.” Al looked at one of his hands and flexed his fingers. “Half the time I had to remember that if I wasn’t careful I might crush something without even realizing it.” Al turned his head up to gaze at the stars, SG-1 utterly silent as he went on. “I mean it wasn’t like I couldn’t feel, you know? I knew where my arms and legs were, I could turn my head and look around and sit down. But knowing the sun was out and not feeling warm, or walking on a rainy day and not feeling wet, it just didn’t feel like I was really a part of the world even as I walked through it.”  Wrapping his arms around his legs again, Al stared into the lantern. “Eventually we realized that if I didn’t get my body back in time, I wouldn’t have even been able to continue as armor.”

 

Carter dared to speak up. “Wait, why?”

 

“The soul wasn’t in it’s original body,” Al said, May looking at Al like a hurt child she knew needed comforting but couldn’t get it. “At some point my soul and the armor would’ve rejected each other. I don’t know if my armor would have just fallen apart or rusted away faster, but eventually I would’ve finally been gone forever.”

 

The silence stretched on for a good five minutes before O’Neill finally spoke up. “Teal’c, Fuery, you two relieve Falman and Breda. The rest of us’ll turn in.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

* * *

Al walked with Daniel down one of the long-deserted streets, cracked with native grass poking up through the more damaged sections. The wind continued to whistle through the abandoned avenues, long shadows stretching across the city over the buildings that only had floors into the double-digits. The vehicles around them were sun-bleached and rusting, small holes poking out of the sides. “ _Iron rust,_ ” Al said. “ _At least I’ll be able to bend them._ ”

 

“Well, gotta give’em this,” O’Neill said, craning his neck back to try to see the tops of the buildings from below. “They sure could overdesign.”

 

“And be creepy as they did it,” Fuery said quietly. “I don’t see any telegraph or power lines on any of the buildings, maybe it was all underground?”

 

“No chance of checking that today, just try to find a book, or newspaper, or a TV Guide.” Poking his head inside the window of what looked like a ruined boutique, O’Neill shook his head. “The fall casual line isn’t looking very good this year.”

 

Falman stopped at a car and bent down to look inside, staring at the interior curiously. “I don’t see a steering column on the dashboard, just a flat glass surface.”

 

“What?” May hurried over and pressed her face up against the glass. “That doesn’t make sense, how would they control it?”

 

O’Neill put a distant look on his face and in an eerie voice said, “Psychic powers.”

 

May’s eyes went wide as Falman…rolled his eyes? O’Neill couldn’t tell. “Impossible, psychic powers are real here?”

 

O’Neill thought for a second. “We’re pretty sure.” Walking on, O’Neill stopped and checked an intersection. “This block’s clear. Can one of you leave a mark on the road so we know where we’ve been?” Al nodded, clapping his hands and forming a check mark in the middle of the intersection. O’Neill nodded. “That’ll work.”

 

Continuing on, Al poked his head into as many buildings as he could. Some had electronic devices in them, even more advanced than what he’d already seen from SG-1’s world. Others sold clothes, a few looked like they’d sold food that had long since rotted away. All the while the whistling wind followed their every step from the spires overhead.

 

“Guess they had a lot of time on their hands,” Falman said, sparing a look above. “Sir, it wasn’t a war that depopulated this planet, but what could’ve done this?”

 

“Maybe the rent came due,” O’Neill said, knocking on the side of one of the buildings. “I mean these things look pretty pricey, rent control can only do so much.”

 

Al and May looked to Falman for an answer, but Falman could only shrug.

 

By what they guessed was midday, the temperature had become warm enough that O’Neill had opened his jacket, everyone quickly following his lead. “Heat from the sun, heat from the pavement, how’d they keep this city cool?”

 

“Carter probably has some theory about what they built these things out of,” O’Neill said, nearly tripping over a pothole. “Christ, didn’t know MnDOT did interstellar work.” Another round of looks. “Look, eventually I’ll throw out a joke you people get.”

 

Falman turned away and poked his head into a broken window and grinned. “Hey, I think I finally found something.” Reaching over the glass, he pulled back with a worn but still somehow legible magazine. “Think Dr. Jackson can use this?”

 

O’Neill walked over, taking the magazine in hand. “Where was it?”

 

“Laying under a shelf,” Falman said, pointing to a bleached-white corner. “I wouldn’t have even seen it if that edge hadn’t been poking out.”

 

O’Neill looked over the cover, and both he and Falman saw that the cover was of a single child, surrounded by adults. All the adults had their hands on the boy as he wept, tears streaming down his face. In his hands he held a small model, what looked like a four-legged toy to O’Neill. Flipping through it, they saw the pictures were of husbands and wives embracing. One was of what were probably political leaders shaking hands, signing papers, and locking away stores of information into a massive vault. “ _Well that’s one question answered, just find that vault and we figure out what happened here._ ”

 

“I don’t like this,” Al said, looking over the pictures for himself. “What are they all doing? And why do they all look so torn up about it?”

 

“Daniel’ll tell us that once we get this to him.” Pocketing the magazine, O’Neill scanned the spires and shifted his weapon ever so slightly. “Falman, call back to camp and tell them we’re on the way with intel.”

 

As O’Neill led the way back to camp, Al stopped and looked around. There was a scent in the air, fresh and obvious. The sickly-sweet smell of tobacco drifting through the streets. Looking around, Al didn’t see any sign of Havoc, then he mentally chided himself. “Colonel! I think someone else is here!”

 

O’Neill and the others turned back to see Al staring back through the deserted streets, looking around like he knew something was there. “Well who is it?”

 

“I don’t know,” Al said, but whoever it is, they’re smoking.”

 

O’Neill didn’t react, he just turned and kept walking. “C’mon Al, we’re burning daylight here.”

 

Al looked back, trying to figure out why O’Neill was leaving the area. “ _Why isn’t he worried about this?_ ” Filing that question away with a few dozen others, Al hurried to catch up for the walk back to camp. Above him, a single, baleful red eye watched his retreating form.

* * *

Daniel read over the magazine, flipping through the pages as the team was gathered around. “Well you’re right, this is definitely a somber issue. Near as I can guess, this child is literally the youngest person on the planet when this was printed, and the only person left of a single-digit age.”

 

“So it was a depopulation event?” Carter looked out onto the city-scape. “I don’t understand, I mean it looks like they had a pretty successful infrastructure for their needs. We even found a shop with food in it, it didn’t look like they were going hungry.”

 

“Yeah, but take a look at this.” Daniel flipped to several pages all featuring the boy. “He’s holding this toy in every one, and it doesn’t look like something you give a child that looks like he’s on the verge of tears.”

 

Breda shrugged. “Maybe it’s a cultural thing? We might not think it, but maybe that’s their equivalent to a teddy bear.”

 

“Yeah, maybe,” Daniel murmured. “I’ll need to take this back to the SGC before we can really compare it to anything, hopefully carbon date it, but I’m really interested in this.” Daniel started flipping through pages until he came to the image of the vault. “If this was a kind of time capsule, this planet’s population must’ve found a way to preserve their past for whoever came after.”

 

“That leaves something out,” Breda said. “Why put in a security system if they wanted to preserve everything for someone to find?”

 

Daniel shrugged. “Why do we bury valuables or put gold in a bank vault? I mean it would make sense if they knew about the Goa’uld that they’d want to keep this information out of the wrong hands.”

 

“I just can’t help but feel sorry for him,” May said, looking at a picture of the boy, and a man and woman she guessed we his parents. They were hugging the boy, a sad looking man that was wearing a long white coat standing behind them stone-faced. A scientist maybe? “If he really was the last child on this planet before they all died out, it must’ve been terrifying.”

 

Al shuddered at the thought. “ _That might’ve been Ed and I,_ ” he thought. “ _Even if we hadn’t gotten our bodies back, he would’ve just kept growing older as I stayed in the armor. I might’ve had to bury him like how he probably buried his parents._ ”

 

“Alright, Daniel you dial home and get started on that translation,” O’Neill said. “The rest of us’ll keep looking for SG-9’s bodies.”

 

As Daniel got up and moved for the DHD, Al looked back into the whistling city. Somewhere inside were the remains of two men, and O’Neill was still dedicated to finding them. “ _No wonder Havoc and the others still want to be here,_ ” he thought. “ _They’re almost like Gen. Mustang._ ”

 

A quick lunch later, they were back out into the city, scouring the streets while Daniel went back to the SGC. Al poked his head into another shop, seeing it probably was a small store for families at one time. The shop was barren though, empty except for a few shattered shelves bearing dust-covered toys and picture books. Kneeling down to pick one up that didn’t look too damaged from time, Al flipped through the pages. “Maybe Daniel can use this.”

 

“Portrait of a world abandoned by the universe, spinning on a path regardless of who stands upon it.” Al’s eyes went wide, and spinning around he was face to face with a man in a perfectly-tailored gray suit. His raven-black hair was expertly coiffed, and a fresh cigarette smoked in his right hand. “I’m sorry, I was just thinking out loud there.”

 

Al backed up, trying to gauge the man. He wasn’t armed, at least not obviously. That didn’t discount magic or psychic powers. Still, if he were a threat, why just talk? Taking a breath, Al did the only thing he could think of doing.

 

“Hi, I’m Alphonse.”

 

The man gave a smile. “A pleasure to meet you Alphonse. I’m Rod. Sorry, I was just walking through this world myself.” The man’s voice was like Van Hohenheim’s, a rich, deep voice that flowed around the ears and dug itself into the mind. Al didn’t dare let his guard down yet though, not \without knowing anything about him. “So, what are you doing here?”

 

Al took a stab. “I’m looking for the bodies of two men, they came here through the stargate, do you know what that is?”

 

“I do,” Rod said, nodding as he stalked about the decaying store. “A means of travel for beings that have left behind that which makes a man a man.” Al raised his eyebrow as Rod spoke, lifting from a ruined shelf a toy car like the ones outside. “The means by which petty despots have thrown themselves through the universe seeking the weak to subject and the good to usurp.”

 

Al nodded, letting Rod walk through the store. “So you came through the gate then? Did you see what happened to the men in the same outfit I’m wearing?”

 

Rod nodded. “Their bodies are gone, I’m sorry but you’re going to have to give their families folded flags once this is over as the only things they’ll have to mourn over.”

 

Al’s heart fell a little. He’d still remembered when he and Ed had told Gracia Hughes what had happened to Maes, and didn’t envy the men who would have to tell the families back in SG-1’s universe. Al kept his eyes trained on Rod though. “Did you do it?”

 

Rod shook his head. “No, I only arrived here as they were killed.” Taking a drag on his cigarette, Rod turned to Al with a dour look. “You’ll be fine though. It’ll be clear what the key is when you finally meet it.”

 

Al was about to ask what that meant when he heard O’Neill’s voice call out. “Hey, Al, get your butt out to where I can see you!” Al had only turned for a second, but when he looked back he saw Rod had vanished. The car was on the counter now, there was dust disturbed where Rod had stepped, and the scent of tobacco was still lingering in the air. The only thing missing was a dark-haired man in a well-tailored gray suit. Shaking his head, Al ran out and held the book aloft. “Colonel, I think I found something Daniel can use.”

 

O’Neill nodded, looking up from what looked like an official car of some sort despite the sun bleaching. “Good job, but next time make sure you tell us where you’re going huh?” O’Neill started to go on, but sniffed around Al for a second. “You smoke?”

 

Al shook his head. He started to open his mouth, but didn’t know how to explain what happened to O’Neill. “ _Oh, I just had a conversation with a man in a suit who wasn’t there when I turned away. Yeah, that’ll go over real well Al._ ” “I guess I just stood a little too close to Havoc.”

 

O’Neill nodded, giving Al a look as he took the children’s book out of Al’s hand. “Good find kid, this’ll make Daniel’s job a little easier hopefully.” Tilting his head, O’Neill flipped through the book and shrugged. “Eh, I’ll wait for the movie.”

 

Al smiled, taking the book back as O’Neill kept walking through the streets. May came up, still staring up at the spires. “The buildings look like they keep getting taller the further we get into the city,” she said, smiling as she shielded her eyes from the sun. “I can’t wait to tell Ling about this when I get back. He’ll probably try so hard to make a city like this.” May suddenly starting grinning with a diabolical style. “Then maybe I can step in to be Empress.” Al looked down nervously at May, who quickly started laughing and waving her hand. “I’m kidding Alphonse, kidding! Of course I wouldn’t try to goad Ling into doing something so foolish.” Al only felt some partial relief. “So, when’s your brother’s wedding?”

 

“We’re not sure yet,” Al said as the two started walking again, Al thankful to have something else to focus his mind on. “Between his traveling and Winry’s work, all we can agree on is that it should be a spring wedding.”

 

“And you?” May looked up innocently. “I’m sure the local farmers’ daughters can’t wait to have you sweep them off their feet.”

 

Al was chuckling at the idea. “Well maybe some other farmers’ daughters, the ones in Resembool only come by if their fathers need some automail work done.”

 

May shrugged. “Well, I’m sure she’s out there for you. After all, if your temperamental brother can find someone, you certainly won’t have the same problem.”

 

O’Neill turned around. “Hey, less romantic stuff, more looking for clues and/or bodies.”

 

Al chided himself mentally, turning back to the abandoned streets. Rod’s words kept echoing through his head though. “ _Two folded flags,_ ” he thought. “ _If he saw it happen, why didn’t he try to help? Or could he?_ ”

 

The wind kept whistling through the spires.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

* * *

“Three days and nothing else worth finding,” Havoc groaned, pulling off his boots and putting on a pair of fresh socks. “When I get back, I’m just gonna dunk my feet and stay that way until we go back.”

 

Breda glared at Havoc. “Gee, thanks for that mental image.”

 

Fuery and Sam were too occupied explaining a “circuit board” to Al and May. “Think of these lines in the card as a miniaturized electrical wire,” Fuery said, pointing to a gold-colored line inlaid in the plastic. “It goes into this chip here, which contains a series of miniaturized capacitors and resistors that control what goes in and out of the chip. The information is transmitted in bits, electrical signals. When a signal is being sent, that’s called a 1, and when there isn’t that’s a 0. It’s what’s called binary.”

 

Al nodded, keeping pace well enough. “So in this case, since we pulled this chip from one of the cars, it controlled functions like the car’s speed and headlights?”

 

“More than likely just the headlights,” Carter said. “I don’t want to guess if it controlled any other functions in the vehicle until we can try to test one of them after we bring back SG-9.”

 

Al suppressed the thought of what Rod had told him. He couldn’t trust that information yet, not without proof. Still, it was becoming more and more obvious that they’d need far longer to search the city alone, to say nothing of the planet. Finding SG-9’s men was becoming less and less of a prospect even as O’Neill drew out a rough map of where they’d been so far.

 

“I’m still confused,” May said, poking at the chip. “How’d they make something capable of such great feats so tiny? This ‘chip’ is smaller than my fingernail, but you’re saying it can control a car? I’ve seen car engines before, there’s not a chance this little chip can do what you’re telling me.”

 

Carter shook her head, but still smiled. “We’ll try to explain it a little better once we’re back at the SGC.”

 

The stargate was suddenly alight, and everyone scattered for cover. Teal’c leveled his staff weapon at the center, O’Neill holding down a detonator for several explosives he’d left around the stairs. The “KAWOOSH” blasted out from the center of the ring, and seconds later Daniel Jackson walked out, hands up. “It’s me, it’s just me! Normal, not-mind-controlled Daniel Jackson.”

 

O’Neill rose. “Stand down everyone. So, you get the book Al found?”

 

“I did, thanks, it actually did help a lot, but not for the better.”

 

O’Neill feigned disappointment. “Let me guess, it was the butler.”

 

Havoc chuckled as he lit up. “So what’d it say?”

 

“Sam, do you remember that message we got from the alternate 2010 about finding a planet that would sterilize the human population?” Sam nodded. “Well I think these people found that planet before we did. Once they realized what was happening they decided to deny whoever would come for the planet their prize.”

 

Fuery looked up in shock. “You got messages from the future?”

 

Carter chuckled. “I’ve _sent_ messages to the future.”

 

Falman scratched his stubbly chin. “Well the part about denying the planet makes sense makes sense, right?”

 

Daniel sighed. “It gets worse.”

 

Carter shook her head. “Of course it does.”

 

“It seems that this boy, his name was Zafiah, he was chosen to become the basis for whatever means would guard this information vault. It does mention that perhaps one day they would have a means to ensure that some worthy successor found it, but from the tone of the articles no one thinks that was very likely. Mainly they spend most of the pieces vowing that they would never give up their world and they would see that no one else would have their tomb.”

 

“Whatever beings did this to them,” Teal’c said. “They obviously have not succeeded in taking this world as their own.”

 

Al just kept thinking about the picture of the boy in the magazine. “ _That picture with his parents,_ ” he realized. “ _It was their goodbye._ ”

 

O’Neill looked back out onto the city. “Guess they thought SG-9 were the invaders,” he said. “Don’t suppose that system had an off switch?”

 

“My best guess is that it’s in the vault,” Daniel said. “Thankfully now that I’ve had some time to go over their language I think I can actually get us around. Some of the signs over the shops were still intact, if I can find a library or school we might be able to get somewhere. I got some more information out of Kovacek, given what he said I think I can get us to where SG-9 were killed.”

 

O’Neill nodded. “Alright, Carter, Teal’c, I want you to stay at the camp in case something goes wrong. Everyone else, with me.”

 

Breda patted Al on the back. “Looks like you get to show the colonel what you both can really do.” Al and May both looked at each other with the same sentiment.

 

“I really don’t want to.”

* * *

With Daniel leading the way, the journey through the city sped by. Following the paths, the team started to notice that the pavement was suddenly peppered with scorch marks. Black smears on the pavement became more and more common, with melted glass and slagged vehicles starting to take up the majority of the ruins across the street. The buildings appeared undamaged though, making Al wonder just what they were made of.

 

“Sir, some of these spots.” Havoc knelt down and ran his hand across the discolored pavement. “This is where someone’s body was burned.”

 

O’Neill scanned the intersection. “You sure?”

 

Havoc nodded. “We know when a body's been burned.”

 

“Well the question is what happened to SG-9,” Daniel said. “I mean if the bodies had been turned into particulates then we might as well just go home.”

 

“Not until we find that vault,” O’Neill said. “We find that, we get Kinsey and the NID off our ass.”

 

“Colonel, trust me, sometimes it’s better to not find a source of knowledge.” O’Neill turned to face Al. “You might think this vault can solve your problems, but it might just wind up being a misery once you find what’s inside.”

 

“Well we can decide that once we find it,” O’Neill said. He took one more step toward the intersection-

 

The beam cut across the street in front of O’Neill, who let out a scream and jumped back behind cover. The teams scattered, the wind still whistling across the spires. “Where’d it come from?”

 

“Above us, from the tops of the buildings,” Falman shouted. “Is it some kind of emplacement?”

 

Al poked his head out and looked around. “I don’t see anything, what if there were some survivors after all?”

 

“There can’t be,” Daniel shouted, a beam cutting down the center of the street near Falman, who had taken cover behind a half-melted car. “The magazine said that once they did whatever they were planning to do to Zafiah they were going to commit planetwide genocide on themselves.”

 

“Well maybe someone didn’t get the message!” Popping his head up, O’Neill scanned the spires and saw nothing. “Dammit, where is this thing!”

 

Fuery tried to angle himself to see from behind one of the buildings when the beam shot down near his leg. His scream echoed with the whistling wind, and Al looked over to see something scurry out of sight around a corner of the spire. Slamming his fists down, Al created a makeshift bunker out of the street. It wasn’t fast enough though, as another blast cut down the street and caught Havoc close enough to burn his arm. Al looked over and saw Havoc’s left sleeve melted away, the soldier clutching gingerly at his reddening arm.

 

“Oh fer cryin’ out loud,” O’Neill groaned, beams screaming down from on high and starting to melt through the makeshift shelter. “Falman, Breda, get to those two and help them!” Breda started to move, before another brilliant beam of light cut through the pavement. “Jesus!”

 

May grabbed her daggers and threw then of them; five around Havoc’s arm, five around Fuery’s leg. Scratching a pentagram into the pavement, May stuck five daggers into the pavement and slammed her hands down. Lightning arced from May to Fuery and Havoc, the two easing off their cries of pain but still clearly better off back in the infirmary. “Al, what do we do?”

 

O’Neill looked a little insulted, but Al looked down the street. There was a line of scorch marks down the street, slagged cars, and melted windows. The buildings weren’t even crisped however, they just kept standing unmarred. Al’s eyes ripped open, he clapped his hands, and slammed them into the side of the building.

 

Nothing.

 

Another beam tore through the shelter, scorching the ground underneath. Clapping his hands again, Al slapped the building and was rewarded with nothing.

 

Daniel called out. “Al, I don’t think that’s gonna do anything. I don’t think whatever they’re made of exists where you come from.”

 

Al shook his head. Didn’t exist where he came from? How could he not know about what the building was made out of then? Al shook his head, it didn’t make sense. Shaking his head. Al went back to the road and slammed his hands down. The street ahead shifted, warping into some more cover for as long as it would last and shielding him from view. “ _All the scorch marks are down this street, there has to be something this thing is guarding._ ”

 

O’Neill had the same idea. “Breda, Falman, stay with Havoc and Fuery! Al, you and May stay- Al, get back here!”

 

Al kept rushing forward, forming more cover as he ran forward. May started alternating with him; cover from her, cover from Al, leapfrogging down the street. Beams broke through at random, molten tar and boiling rock dripping down. Al was sweating from the heat, sprinting under the streets didn’t help.

 

Glass started to rain down from above. “ _What’s breaking the glass?_ ” Al shook the thought loose, now wasn’t the time to wonder about that. Whatever this weapon was had to be powerful if it was focused on them.

 

O’Neill shouted, ducking back behind a near-melted car. “Jesus, this thing’s got me pinned!” Al turned, about to give him more cover when he shouted and waved his arms. “Keep going, I’ll keep it occupied!”

 

Al nodded and kept running.

 

May threw another set of knives and swore in Xingese. “Alphonse, I don’t have anymore knives!”

 

Al bit back his own curse. “ _Just keep running Al, the vault must be somewhere near the end of this street!_ ” It was the only thing that made sense in his mind. The melted cars, the scorch marks, the shattering windows, this kind of protection only made sense if they were close to the vault that the people of this planet hid away.

 

The glass falling was replaced by a new noise: Rubble. Bits and pieces started to fall overhead now, which told Al that whatever the weapon was, it was tearing the buildings apart. There was a building up ahead, a massive black shape that took up the entire street before him. Rushing forward with all he had, Al knew that had to be the key. Once he got inside he could find a way to shut off the weapon, maybe even turn it to use for the MVTF? May kept up beside him, and Daniel had to be in the distance. One more shelter, one minute more of sprinting-

 

The shelter before him collapsed, and Al froze in his tracks. There before him was the toy from the magazine, held by Zafiah. It had four legs, sharp points at the bottom. A camera lens like Al had never seen before was held aloft on a stalk, craning in on Al and staring at him. “ _That’s why we didn’t see it,_ ” he thought. “ _It scurried atop the buildings. The whistling wind hit it, and the stalk kept us from seeing it while it saw us._ ”

 

“Alphonse!” Turning, Al saw May and Daniel staring at the thing. The machine turned the camera lens on May and Daniel. When it saw Daniel with his pistol out, the lens started to turn red. Al jumped in front of it. “No! No, don’t shoot him!”

 

The red started to fade as Al got in front of the device. It turned red as the stalk angled to view Daniel again. Al turned and shouted, “Daniel, get rid of the gun!” Daniel threw the gun away, and held his hands high to the device. The lens cooled again, and Al let out a sigh of relief. Taking a guess, Al looked into the lens as it angled to look him in the eyes. “Zafiah?”

 

[The lens nodded.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2kwie-gs2o)

 

Al’s heart didn’t sink, it dove into ice water. “Daniel, can you ask it permission to take us to the vault?”

 

Daniel nodded, and in a halting, guttural tongue asked. The lens nodded again, and like it was kneeling down exposed it’s back to them as if saying, “Ride on my back, I’ll take you there.” Heart sinking further as he clambered onto the cold metal material with May and Daniel, the device trundled up from the hole it made and started clambering toward the massive building at what Al guessed was the center of the city.

 

“It’s him,” Al whispered. “They weren’t kidding. He did become the guardian of their world. They put his soul into this machine.” May looked down at the device, it’s spikes punching into the pavement with each step.

 

“No, that doesn’t make sense,” Daniel said. “I mean we’ve seen a lot of things Al, but we still don’t have any concept of a soul. Unless…” Daniel trailed off. “No, no, there’s no way that makes sense.”

 

May looked over, clearly dreading asking. “What makes no sense?”

 

Daniel sighed. “On another world we had robotic duplicates made of us, actual replications down to our personalities. They literally believed they were us until we showed up. If that were the case here why didn’t they do the same on this planet?”

 

Al looked down at the machine that was Zafiah, the stalk looking back at him now looking more like the big innocent eyes of a child. Eyes he'd seen before staring up at him from a nightmare made real. “What adult would want to live like this?”

 

Zafiah trundled into the building, crawling toward a pair of massive doors leading into a cavernous path into the depths of the structure. Al could see the tattered remnants of a flag, the fallen golden emblem of whatever government had ruled this world before the sterilization. Inside the path there were enough lights still functional to keep it lit that Al could see the end in the distance. A pair of massive doors, still open and waiting. The vault from the magazine.

 

Trundling inside, Zafiah let them jump off. Al looked into the lens and saw it tilt sideways in confusion. “Daniel, can you ask him where he is now?” Daniel did so, and the stalk pointed to a doorway to the side of the structure. Daniel said another phrase that didn’t need translation. “Thank you.”

 

Leading the way, Daniel gently grasped the handle of the door, motioning for Al and May to get behind him. Hesitating, Daniel turned the handle and poked his head just beyond the door frame to peek inside.

 

The room was well lit, and inside tall black towers hummed. It was brightly lit with the strange tube-lights Al had seen in the SGC. The black towers had their own lights, blinking on and off in rapid sequence. “ _Ones and zeroes,_ ” he realized. In the center of the room was a black rectangle, leaning at an angle in the middle of it all.

 

Their radios crackled to life. “ _Daniel…-t’s going on…Thing just…ing crazy!_ ”

 

Daniel grabbed the radio. “Jack, stay away for now, the robot we saw doesn’t like weapons. Just stay outside, we’ll come back when we figure out how to calm it down.” Al was already moving closer to the rectangle. A series of colored wires ran out of the top of it. As Al approached, part of him knew what was coming. He desperately hoped against hope it wasn’t what he knew it would be but there was no denying it. Taking one last breath, he turned the corner.

 

It was a pathetic little thing, desiccated by time but preserved under the glass case. Zafiah lay at peace under the glass, the toy from the magazine still clutched in his withered hands. Empty eye sockets stared back at Al, lips peeled back to reveal a dead smile. At the top of the head, wires were stuck into the boy’s skull like hair, running up to the top and into the black blinking towers scattered around the room.

 

Daniel shook his head. “Looks like we were both right,” he whispered solemnly. “They used his mental patterns to control the system. Zafiah is in here now.”

 

Al’s hands balled into fists. Part of him wanted to smash the glass, to cradle the body and bury it. It wouldn’t do any good. What was worse, he knew it.

 

Daniel went back out into the bay, feeling Zafiah’s innocent and baleful eye following him as he went to a wider door: The vault. It took a few tries to understand the mechanism, but eventually Daniel managed to open the locks with enough fiddling. Pulling the massive bay doors apart, Daniel walked in to see before him dozens upon dozens of shelves. Massive boxes and works of art along with walking tanks and advanced aircraft. Before him, however, was a book. On the cover, Zafiah.

 

May walked in behind him, looking up in awe at the vault and the contents inside. “This was their entire history wasn’t it,” she whispered. “This was an entire planet’s story. It’s amazing.”

 

“Well here’s the post-script,” Daniel said, reading the book. “Apparently they’d been working on this system the moment they’d realized that their population was sterile, but by the time they got it to work they realized that after a certain point they couldn’t put everyone's consciousness into those servers, the black boxes with the lights. Apparently only a young enough mind could be successfully connected. By the time it was finished, Zafiah was the last child on the planet young enough to make the connection.”

 

May’s pupils had shrunk, her face ashen as Daniel spoke. “What about the rest of the people?”

 

“They realized that their enemies would try to get at their knowledge, but that that perhaps someone else might come. Not as conquerors, but explorers. Zafiah was told that anyone with a weapon was an enemy, to not let them in. Anyone without was a friend, and to let them to the vault.” Daniel’s hands clenched around the book. “A child’s logic.”

 

May looked back onto the warehouse. “What else did they say?”

 

Daniel sighed. “They apparently decided that after Zafiah was interred into the system, they knew it was only a choice between slow lingering death and deciding to commit genocide on their whole population. After he was interred the planet was hit with a nerve toxin by the government. Zafiah was told that when this happened he was to disintegrate the bodies and guard the vault for the eventual explorers.”

 

May felt the tears starting to trickle down her face. “W-What about Zafiah now?”

 

Daniel flipped through the pages. “Here. It says that if we want, we can continue to utilize Zafiah as our own. That all their technologies and discoveries are given freely in peace.”

 

“What would your government do with it?”

 

Daniel and May turned to see Al glaring into the warehouse. Daniel adjusted his glasses and without emotion said, “If they knew a way to make a weapon like that work with the mind of a child, there are parts of my government that wouldn’t hesitate to do so.”

 

Al nodded. “Mine too.” Turning, Al stormed back to Zafiah’s room, the lens following him as he stormed over. “ _Servers,_ ” he thought. “ _Sam said that the electronics in this planet are made of those circuit board things. Silicon and plastic and gold._ ” Turning back to the door, he saw Zafiah’s lens sticking into the room on the stalk. Putting on a smile, Al looked up at the boy. “Daniel,” he called out. “Ask if he’s tired?” Daniel did so, and the lens nodded. “Does he miss his parents?” Another translation, another nod. “Tell him that he’ll be able to see them very soon.” Daniel paused, but translated. The lens perked up, and looked back toward the entrance to the vault. Voice breaking, Al clapped his hands together. “Tell him that he needs to wait at the entrance like a good boy Daniel, and he’ll see them in five minutes.” Zafiah raced to the entrance, Al ignoring the tears as he slammed his palms onto one of the servers.

 

The circuit boards fractured, the silicone and plastic snapping and the metal melting to slag. The lights flickered as the power shifted, and outside Al heard the robot collapse into a heap, glass shattering as the lens slammed into the ground. The room filled with an acrid stench of melted plastic, Al shutting his eyes until it was all over. Pulling his hands back, Al opened his eyes and surveyed the room. There were no more bits blinking on the lights on the servers, no more sign of Zafiah existing in the room. The only trace that he had ever been there at all, the small mummified body of a little boy with his last toy clutched in his hands.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

* * *

O’Neill watched as Daniel, Al, and May walked back to his position. “Well I don’t know what you did, but those two only have second degree burns. It’ll be a bitch, but they’ll be fine.”

 

May smiled, weakly, but it was still a smile. “What happens now?”

 

O’Neill looked into the distance. “You get into the vault?”

 

Al spoke before Daniel could. “There’s nothing worthwhile inside there,” Al said, stone-faced. “Nothing this planet has is ever going to be worth being here.”

 

O’Neill looked over Al for a second, judging his words and his face. Al didn’t shift, didn’t move, didn’t say anything. Sighing, O’Neill nodded and started walking back, sparing a look at the towering spires before moving on. “Let’s get back to the stargate then.”

* * *

As Fuery and Havoc were helped through the gate, Al looked back on the city, the wind still whistling between the spires. “Someone else can come through the gate after us, can’t they,” Al said as O’Neill started to step through. “Someone else can still come here through the gate.”

 

O’Neill nodded. “Not our job to worry about it kid. C’mon, let’s get outta here.” O’Neill stepped through, leaving Al alone with the whistling winds. Clapping his hands together, Al slammed them onto the dirt of the park and watched as a massive trench dug itself from under where the stargate stood. As he felt the dirt under him shift, Al turned and walked toward the gate. As the DHD fell away Al exhaled, stepped into the blue shimmer, and walked into the SGC as the gate closed a second after he cleared it.

 

“Welcome back all of you,” Gen. Hammond said. He didn’t bother hiding his sorrow. “No sign Makin or Marco?”

 

“Not a trace sir,” O’Neill said quietly. “Recommend we put that one on the do-not-call sir, there’s no point going back there.”

 

Al looked up in surprise as Gen. Hammond nodded and turned to the control room. “You heard the colonel, I want that address stricken from the program immediately.” Turning back, Hammond nodded to Al and May. “I’m glad to see you both back unharmed.”

 

Al nodded, but didn’t bother correcting the general for his mistake.

* * *

Kane walked into the small church, Enoch and several Black Hand following loyally behind as the moon shone brightly in the night. A lone figure knelt before a cross, a rosary wrapped around their hands. “Greetings Joseph. I see your congregation has grown since we last met.”

 

The man shifted, tilting his head back slightly. “Your words guided me. You were right, my brothers were willing to follow me, but my sister…”

 

Kane raised an eyebrow. “What happened?”

 

“The flowers,” Joseph said. “They were too much, she spent too long around them and she, her mind, it couldn’t take it.”

 

“She has gone to her proper reward brother,” Kane said quietly. “You will find her likeness again, I promise you. There are more out there like her than you imagine. You will find such faith again.”

 

Joseph nodded, turning to Kane with a sprouting beard and longer hair. “The Collapse still approaches?”

 

“Faster than I like to admit,” Kane said, his face downcast. Reaching out he took Joseph by the shoulders. “Your commitment to protecting this world and it’s people show promise Joseph, you must continue to expand. Remember that one day you will face forces that wish to stop you, that will not realize the greatness of the work you are trying to accomplish.”

 

“I’ve already taken steps to handle that,” Joseph said. “My family know what is expected of them, the things they had to do to ensure that the fools ruling this world would realize the price that would befall them should they try to stop us.”

 

Kane nodded. “Your leadership matches your convictions, Joseph. Remember that once set into motion these actions can’t be stopped. The promised land awaits you, and once the Collapse has finished you will be left to guide mankind to glory once more.”

 

Joseph suddenly looked frightened. “But, if they come for me?”

 

Kane shook his head. “They will not be able to take you.” Pulling Joseph in close, Kane ignored the stink almost pluming out of the man and hugged him. “I still have much work to do, but know that I have still followed your progress. The world is yours to take Joseph, to guide and mold after the Collapse. They will attack you because they will not realize that truth of your words.”

 

From Enoch’s place, Joseph’s face looked like it he had achieved an epiphany on the level of understanding his place in existence. “I understand, brother. I will make sure my family is ready for the Collapse.”

 

Kane pulled away, still smiling at Joseph. “You will lead them to Eden’s gates, brother. I have seen it.”

 

As Kane left the church, Enoch leaned close. “Our observation teams have noted several potential individuals for the new Inner Circle, brother. Your orders?”

 

“Tell them to continue their missions, and to alert me when they appear ready to join us.” A red portal opened in front of Kane as he walked forward, smiling as several men and women around the church watched in horror. “Rome wasn’t built in a day after all brother. I should know.”

 

The group walked through and the portal closed like they had never even existed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Hope you're all enjoying the series. Again, if you are, if you aren't, please leave a review that tells me what I'm doing right, wrong, and how I'm writing the characters. Next story's already in progress, expect it soon!


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